Hi everyone! I decided to take the new forum for a spin! Angel said that Doug, Ernie, and Paul had already been test driving it, so why should the guys have all the fun??
So, I'm getting ready to retire from my day job after 26 years. I've been hoarding glass and supplies, thinking I'm going to finally have time to do what I want. I'm starting to venture into hot glass. I've taken a beadmaking class at Louisville Glassworks and think I would like to make a bead or two. I had a wonderful bottle of wine the other night, but even better than the wine was it's beautiful cobalt blue bottle! So, not wanting to put it in the trash or recycle bin, I started thinking of ways that I could recycle it for my own use. This thought led me to thinking about slumping it and making a spoon rest for my stove.
Anyway, I have a birthday coming up and am thinking about a kiln. Any suggestions for a kiln that would be big enough to do a few things maybe as big as a plate and would also have a bead annealer? I think I need a digital programmer. I'm trying to keep it in the price range of say $500-700. Another plus would be that the kiln could be portable. I'm going to be spending weeks at a time taking care of my elderly mother at her home, and it would be nice to have something to do there other than watch Lawrence Welk reruns.
I've looked at several online. There's not a supplier around here so I would have to order it.
I value everyone's opinion here.
So far, I love the new forum. Thanks in advance for any suggestions!
I took a class at Glass Expo where we were testing a new kiln by Evenheat. It was made of a material that was NOT fire bricks but was the type of material that was super light weight. It might hold a wine bottle. It only weighed about 25 pounds, so those of us who teach thought it would be great if we needed to transport kilns for classes. I thought it was a good kiln and would recommend it but don't know the cost.
You might contact Evenheat about their new kiln. I didn't see it on their website.
I'm not sure that you will find a big kiln to slump wine bottles within the price range you have available. The Evenheats small kilns range in the $500's. They would be portable but not big enough to do the wine bottles.
Paragon's Fusion 6 & 7 are pretty good kilns are in the 14" diameter, so maybe could slump a bottle. They are in the $700-800 range. Paragon has prices on their website. But these would NOT be portable. They have a few smaller kilns that might hold a bottle that would be portable but were over $800.
Portable might be more about power requirements than size. I have 14in Paragon and while heavy can be picked up and moved. Vibration and bumps should be damped by putting the kiln on the back seat. This size requires a 120v 20 amp plug so you may need to have one installed in both locations of not already there for some reason. When travelling put several layers of bubble wrap between the top cover and kiln body as a cushion. I suggest you look at controllers that allow the kiln to be managed via a PC. Then you can custom make any firing program and save them.
I had a wonderful bottle of wine the other night, but even better than the wine was it's beautiful cobalt blue bottle! So, not wanting to put it in the trash or recycle bin, I started thinking of ways that I could recycle it for my own use. This thought led me to thinking about slumping it and making a spoon rest for my stove.
Vicki, Bottles are fun but they do require a rather large Kiln. I did many of them in my 18" Jen-Ken. There are some beautiful slumped and painted bottles in the Hot Glass Gallery done by Bobbie Matus. I know they are on pages 4, 5 and 6 but you can open the sidebar and search for Bottle to pull them up that way.
I NEED SG Pictures, people. Send them in e-mail. I just added some of Vernelle's fused pieces to Hot Glass and one to the Traditional Glass Galleries (hereby known as T-Glass )
I agree it's going to be hard to find a kiln that is large enough to do plates but yet keep the electrical requirements low enough to make it portable. I have a smaller 11" x 11" kiln and it requires a special outlet and a dedicated line. I have a smaller bead kiln that runs off of a regular household outlet but it is no where big enough for a plate. Neither is the 11" for that fact, I use my 24" for any large projects.
I torched for years using my 11" kiln, putting the beads in through the top. I used a piece of fiber blanket to lay things on because by the time I got my hand (gloved of course) close enough to put in the mandrel my hand was getting mighty toasty. LOL I can honestly say that once I got a beading kiln I would never go back to using one without a bead door. I can make small fused items in my bead kiln, think the shelf is 6" deep, but I really only use it for torchwork. If you go for one of the kilns geared toward fusing ask to have a bead door added. There are a couple Jen-Ken kilns that fall in this range. I'm just not sure you will find one large enough to make plates.
ETA: After reading over this I realized I should have stated up front – I'm not a beader so any reference to me beading should be taken with a grain of salt. LOL There are many that used to post on the torching forum that are much better beaders then me. They might have a different opinion. My torching experience lies elsewhere.
Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I obviously have a lot to learn. At least I have some brand names now to work with. Depending on price, I might just try a little Chili Pepper kiln for beads first, and just hang on to the blue bottle for now.
Ask yourself what you REALLY want to do with the kiln. I have 4 kilns, 3 of which are smaller kilns. One is the Paragon Bluebird which is only for annealing. I like it, but the electrical requirements for it to run well, are higher than what is stated. You can plug it into a regular outlet, but the statement that it requires less than a hair dryer has to be false. Before I used it on a dedicated line, it took FOREVER to heat up and caused the lights to flicker. Now I use it on an outlet that is its own line and it heats super fast and works great. I don't think it's particularly portable…but I've never tried.
My favorite kiln out of all of them is my Paragon Caldera because it is so versatile. It is too small to fuse a dinner plate or wine bottle because the shelf is…I can't remember…either 6x6 or 7x7". However, you can fuse small stuff and even small ceramic pieces because it gets so hot. It is 3 separate pieces and you can add a bead collar to the set-up (extra cost of course). It's heavy, but again, in pieces so easier to move the pieces. You can remove the bottom and do vitrigraph stringers. Fun stuff!
Something to keep in mind too is that if you do mostly fusing, you are probably going to get bigger and bigger in how you work and will require a larger kiln down the road anyway and having a smaller kiln is still a good thing. If you primarily want to make beads, you should focus on a kiln that will work for that instead of wine bottles or plates.
I have the Fusion 7, was the first new kiln I bought….actually, it was a Christmas present from DH…little did he know ;-) Anyway, it has a 13 inch circular kiln shelf. It plugs into a regular outlet. Portable? Not for me it wouldn't be…too heavy.
I wanted to post the other day but forgot (I hate getting old… haha) that if you are new to torching there should still be some tutorials I wrote a few years ago in the older forum torching section. If any of the pics are missing I can replace them if you are interested.
I wanted to post the other day but forgot (I hate getting old… haha) that if you are new to torching there should still be some tutorials I wrote a few years ago in the older forum torching section. If any of the pics are missing I can replace them if you are interested.
EVERYTHING you ever posted in the Old SF Torch Forum is still there, Melodie….complete with pictures etc. If there are any of the old posts you'd like to repeat here, you're free to copy them to a message. Otherwise, you (or anybody) can go to the LEGACY Torch Forum and do a Search for messages by anybody or any subject. It's a totally intact archive. One of the reasons we chose this Board Program was because it gave the ability to KEEP the original Board info. You don't SERIOUSLY think that I would let any of that priceless information and those magic WORDS float off into cyberspace? Never. Be aware, folks…there are THOUSANDS of them…but just a mere 800 or so by Mel. What a treasure of information!
You don't SERIOUSLY think that I would let any of that priceless information and those magic WORDS float off into cyberspace?
No, I didn't think you would have gotten rid of any of that. I'm just not sure if I kept the pictures in the same place as they were when I posted those. If I moved the pics then all anyone will get is the dreaded red x in it's place.
I honestly don't even remember which ones I posted besides a Frosty snowman and one on making a basic flower. If I get time next week I'll go see if I can find them.
a bead annealing kiln won't make you fusing happy. you really need 2 different ones. however, a bead annealing kiln will be a lot smaller and cheaper than a fusing kiln.
for fusing, go with the largest one keeping in mind affordability/power/space. i would also only look at square ones. you can do a 12" square in a 14" square kiln, but can't do so in a 14" round kiln.
you might try watching the arts&crafts section on craigslist, or put in a watch search on ebay to notify you via email. also, if there's a kiln repair person in your area, they frequently either build new, or have access to used rebuilts for cheaper.
Thanks. I've kind of put my kiln dreams on the back burner for now. I have been watching Ebay and have bid on one, but got outbid. I do appreciate common sense advice like getting a square kiln. I would never have thought of that!
I am the proud new owner of a gently used Jen-Ken 11/4.5 with a 4" bead door. I won it in an auction on Ebay. The guy selling it had gotten a divorce. Evidently the kiln belonged to his wife and he had custody of it and didn't need it. Anyway, he advertised it as having an Orton AutoFire 3 digital controller which I understood had preprogrammed bead annealing programs. However, when I got the kiln it has a Bartlett 3K digital kiln controller. I went to the Bartlett website and downloaded as much as I could find on their controller and at least know what the error codes mean. I got the kiln cleaned up and vacuumed out and it is currently correctly positioned on it's little bricks out in my garage. I turned it on and just made up numbers so that I could get to the point where I could see if the coils were going to heat up and they did.
I've ordered the book "Contemporary Warm Glass" by Brad Walker and am waiting for it to be delivered.
I've made three horrible beads with my MAPP gas torch. It is certainly a lot different from the torch I used in my class. So, if I ever make a bead I would really like to keep, does anyone have a recipe for a bead annealing program? I found a schedule online that said it could be used for either annealing beads as they are made, or as a batch annealing schedule. I think since the kiln is in the garage, I will have to batch anneal the next three horrible beads I make.
I've read several things about kiln wash. Do I need to put a coating of kiln wash on the floor of the kiln before I start using it? It came with a round shelf and one cone shaped object that I thought must be something that should support the shelf but it doesn't. I understand if I use the shelf, I will need some posts to get it up off the floor of the kiln. Another question–when you use the bead door and stick your beads in the kiln still on the mandrel, do you let the bead actually touch the kiln shelf? Seems like the kiln wash would get all over your bead. If you are batch annealing, do you take the beads off the mandrel and arrange them on the shelf in a cold kiln and start from there?
Like I said before, I've got a LOT to learn and no where to go locally to learn. I would appreciate all the help and advise I can get!
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No, I didn't think you would have gotten rid of any of that. I'm just not sure if I kept the pictures in the same place as they were when I posted those. If I moved the pics then all anyone will get is the dreaded red x in it's place.
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